Why Be an Architect?

Like most jobs, people often look to architecture as a career without really knowing what is involved or why. Sometimes it is because they believe that architects make excellent money, or because it looks ‘fun’. Still others enjoy the freedom of lifestyle that can come with being an architect, or enjoy the fact that being an architect can encompass things like landscape, teaching, and building design.

Some even pursue it in order to be famous and influential; after all, a career in architecture can be built upon how well known you are. Much like a freelancer or a consultant, the better known you are, the more work you will get and the better pay you will receive as well. There is also a sense of immortality in being an architect as the buildings you create will outlive you, your children and your grandchildren.

Why be an architect?

There is also a feeling of actively contributing something to your society and your culture because the things you are building will reflect the wants and needs of the people using it and this means answering to a criteria of cultural biases that people are not even aware of, but can be later studied. In this sense, an architect may not only be making himself immortal, after a fashion, but contributing to the immortality of his culture as well.

Architects also enjoy a certain level of freedom from the standards that society often imparts on other professions. Because architects are considered artists and a little apart from society, they can indulge in idiosyncrasies such as clothing design or personality quirks that would not be allowed in a setting like a bank or an office. Many people appreciate this freedom and go into this profession in order to be creative with more than just home design, but with themselves too. Having this freedom also allows architects to get through the slow periods of their profession which can be discouraging, or wade through the criticisms of others with head held high.

Heady stuff, all of it, and thus it requires a reality check. Most architects are far from rich and most do not gain the fame that they long for. Many architects work in huge office buildings, one face among dozens or hundreds, and others work out of tiny offices and barely scrape by. The buildings they help to create will not have their name on it and many simply work on things like skyscrapers and houses, not monuments. Still others do not build at all, but teach instead because of the financial security or because they get more joy out of passing down their knowledge to others.

The real answer to why you want to be an architect should come from within, but there are certain markers of personality and likes that will allow you to be a better architect than someone without. A love of drawing is a decided perk as any architect will have to take pencil to paper and start sketching and drawing his or her ideas onto paper.

Even in the computer age, with software able to do much of what the architect once did, many still find it helpful to put ideas to paper in the form of lines and shading and texture. If nothing else, an idea may strike you when all you have are scraps of paper and a pencil, and you’ll have to draw it or risk losing it all!

Architects also have a set of personality traits that allow them to be more successful: they are self confident, friendly, able to lead well, artistic, ambitious, dedicated, passionate, charismatic, and courageous. Architects have to be willing to experiment with a vision and also willing to bend to what the client wants or needs and reach a mutual understanding. Architects also have to be able to successfully lead their group to get a project done, and be self motivated enough to come up with the ideas in the first place.

Most of all, you have to want to do it. No job should be taken on strictly for money or fame because those things are transitory and there is no guarantee that you will be rich or famous in any career, let alone architecture. However, if you honestly want to do it, then you will find a success of your own in doing a job that allows you freedom, creativity, and honest enjoyment.